Maximilian

Terminal Lance “Wookieegate”

March 7, 2017

Another day, another scandal shaking the entire Marine Corps. I’m sure if you are reading this, you are more than aware of the situation regarding the mostly-fucktarded military Facebook pages cyber-stalking, sexually harassing, threatening, and collecting and putting up nude photos of female Marines. If you’re not familiar, feel free to brush up here.

I’m not sure what’s more sad: that this even happened to begin with or that there’s actually people trying to defend it. Arguments range anywhere from “they shouldn’t be sending nude photos in the first place” to “stop being such a pussy, the Marine Corps is going downhill.”

To the first point, everyone sends nudes in 2017. There are so many photos of my modestly large penis out there that you could fill a 7-ton if you printed them out. The argument that women are asking for it is rapey as hell and straight up victim-blaming. Nude photos sent or received, unless otherwise specified, have a pretty clear implication of privacy involved in it. To be clear, adult women (and men) are doing absolutely nothing morally reprehensible by taking and sending nude photos to their significant other. For whatever reason, these dumbass Facebook pages feel this obligation to be the judge, jury and executioner of moral superiority, as if it is some kind of duty. This is nothing new, it goes all the way back to JTTOTS and F’N Boot. It’s just as logically inept as it’s ever been.

Bouncing off of that, I commonly hear that this is common barracks behavior for Marines (sharing nude photos of women, talking about women, etc). This is true, but there is a clear difference between “hey bro, check out this girl” and “hey 30,000 people, let’s cyber-stalk and harass this woman because she exists.”

To the point of the comic, the argument that somehow the Marine Corps is going “downhill” because women don’t want to be harassed and stalked by men is quite possibly the most idiotic of them all. The idea here is that, back in the Old Corps, people weren’t offended by mean words and language, and therefore, the Marine Corps is going downhill for women demanding they stop being sexually exploited by their peers.

There is no logical correlation between this and that.

I hate to break it to you, but Facebook has only been around since 2006. Yes, the Marine Corps is a tough place, but it’s not because you need to defend yourself against sexual predators. I’ve seen people say that if women want to be treated as equals, they need to grow a thicker skin. This is ridiculous, because I don’t see any Facebook pages putting up photos of young men and talking about how much they want to rape them, or creating a database of nudes of PFC Schmuckateli.

There’s an underlying reality that needs to be addressed, and that male Marines need to really internalize here.

Female Marines are female.

We can talk about one team, one fight and all of that, but at the end of the day they are still women. A real man does not sexually harass a woman. A real man does not sexually assault a woman. A real man doesn’t cyber-stalk women.

Another point worth noting is that female Marines make up just over 7% of the enlisted Marine Corps.

7%

That’s not just a minority population, that’s like jumping into a fucking shark tank.

Men, you need to understand that women in the Marine Corps do not have the numbers to fight against a culture of misogyny. It is up to you to change the culture, not them.

There are legitimate problems in the Marine Corps relating to female Marines. As a male infantryman, I’ve had my share of gripes with women getting fast-tracked to promotions, special treatment, etc. But this isn’t the way to address it. I think this whole thing is going to cause the top to think long and hard about its own culture, and if the Marine Corps is going to be truly equal, it needs to start now.

On a lighter note, if you missed my review on George W. Bush’s new book Portraits of Courage, check it out here.

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